Saturday, December 1, 2012

acceptance, trust, surrender, peace…

remember
when you were in school and you took a class, the teacher is always silent when
a test is being given.you can count on
that in your life.GOD’s not going to
give you the answer in the test.you
might get it later.you might not ever get
it until you get to heaven, but you’re certainly not going to get it in the test.

millions
of people pray the serenity prayer every day.you’re familiar with this:“GOD
grant me the serenity to accept the things i cannot change, the courage to
change the things i can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

that is
a very famous prayer by a man named reihold neibor.but it is edited.there are eight more lines to the serenity
prayer that you may never have heard.that’s where all the power is.the
power of peace is not in the first part of the prayer.it’s in the part that they’ve cut out.

“GOD
grant me the serenity to accept the things i cannot change,

the
courage to change the things i can,

and the
wisdom to know the difference.

living
one day at a time

enjoying
one moment at a time

accepting
hardship as the pathway to peace

taking,
as JESUS did, this sinful world as it is not as i would have it

trusting
that you, GOD, will make all things right if i surrender to

YOUr
will

so that
i may be reasonably happy in this life

and
supremely happy with YOU forever in the next.

amen.

it
makes a little bit of difference, doesn’t it?all of the power is in the second part of the prayer.it’s through the acceptance, the trust, the
surrender that you find the path to peace.